Many problems confront researchers who are developing appropriate methods to determine the effects of sexual abuse. Particularly serious problems arise when the victims are children who were abused while attending a day care center. Several methods for studying child sexual abuse have been recommended. This paper discusses problems researchers…

Although there have been frequent calls for over-time research in mass communication, there are still many reasons that researchers use simpler designs. Each approach: two-time point, panel/repeated measures, and time-series experimental designs, offers its own advantages and disadvantages. By examining the benefits and disadvantages of each…

Kaplan (1964) describes the now classic distinction between "logic-in-use," the more or less logical cognitive style and procedures used by the educational scientist, and "reconstructed logic," the scientist's after-the-fact, explicit formulation and idealization of the logic and procedures. However, most technical documents…

This chapter advocates the use of naturalistic inquiry as a method for undertaking unobtrusive research in instructional development. The advantages of naturalistic inquiry are listed, and it is suggested that these advantages make this form of research very useful to the field of instructional development. It is argued that both naturalistic…

Social scientists tend to adopt either a qualitative or a quantitative perspective in research on social support. As single methods, each perspective has unique distinctions, limitations, and trade-offs. These approaches are based on differing epistemological assumptions. Qualitative research attempts to understand human behavior from the…

A brief review of research on protective factors that allow some individuals to make healthy adaptations despite debilitating circumstances precedes a critical discussion of symposium papers. The discussion is organized around three questions. First, does the search for protective factors demonstrate an important programmatic shift in…

The discourse classification systems used most frequently by reseachers in composition credit A. Bain, J. Moffett, J. Emig, J. Kinneavy, J. Britton, and R. Lloyd-Jones. A majority of the studies that have included discourse types as a major focus of their work were designed to investigate students' syntactic structures. Other studies focused on…

The paper examined the relationship between epidemiological and intervention research with learning disabled adolescents. Several historical trends and contemporary issues (e.g., the importance of prevention as opposed to treatment efforts, applied versus basic research, continuing questions related to definition and identification, and…

Ethnographers generally allow educational psychology to define research problems, to set limits on what they can study, and to dictate some key theoretical concepts. As a consequence, lacunae in descriptions of complexities in the intellectual lives of children have not been filled in by ethnographers. Problems in the focus and methods of…

The best way to get started in conducting measurement research in creative drama is to understand creative drama as fully as possible in order to discover significant issues that need the kind of clarification that measurement research can provide. A few basic research questions that will help people focus on particular projects in creative drama…

Three issues must be addressed when discussing the standards needed to judge the methodological rigor of naturalistic approaches to administrative research. The first issue involves defining naturalistic inquiry. In contrast to the scientific paradigm, naturalistic inquiry emphasizes, first, the inseparability of variables or events from their…

The study of the role parents play in the reading development of their children requires a methodology that is unobtrusive, humane, objective, and natural. Ethnography, with its corresponding technique of participant observation, offers these characteristics. The distinctive features of an ethnographic research design include: formulation of the…

The net result of the social-scientific developments in the 19th and 20th centuries is that educational research has inherited a science that is assumed to constitute a disinterested technology of social engineering and a benevolent source of positive social advance. Unfortunately, the social experiment conducted on traditional lines depends upon…

The monograph defines and discusses single subject research designs in special education. Advantages of this approach with measuring change in handicapped children are noted. Observational techniques (event recording, duration recording, interval recording, and time sampling) are described, along with three types of single subject evaluation…

The review of some recent studies on use of microcomputers in early childhood special education highlights methodological issues including the qualitative quantitative distinction and the interdependence of research design and interpretation. Imbedding qualitative methods into quasi- or true-experimental designs can provide more information than…